K-pop star Jessica Jung has written a YA novel, and it's already in development for the screen

Jessica Jung is hitting the books.

The K-pop star will publish her debut novel, Shine, in the fall of 2020, EW can announce exclusively. It’s part of a two-book deal Jung made with Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, for a series about a Korean-American teenager in training to become the next major K-pop star. (The sequel is slated for 2021.)

And that’s not all: EW has also learned that Glasstown Entertainment, the producing and book-development company founded by authors Lauren Oliver and Lexa Hillyer, has already sold Shine in 11 foreign territories and is currently developing the project for the screen with Matt Kaplan of ACE Entertainment, the team behind Netflix’s smash adaptation To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

Jung, who was born in San Francisco and is best known as a former member of the girls’ group Girl’s Generation, drew from personal experience in writing the book. She was included in Forbes’ 30 under 30 Asia list of influential people in 2017 and is one of the most-followed K-pop stars on Instagram.

“With Shine, I wanted to tell a big, fun, escapist story that also examines in-depth, behind- the-scenes aspects of the K-pop world,” Jung said in a statement. “My goal was to tell a transparent, candid story — in a way that sometimes fiction does best.”

“This series embodies everything I love about YA — it’s romantic and juicy, timely, and true, and will speak to anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water,” added Jennifer Ung, a senior editor at Simon Pulse. “I can’t wait for all readers, but especially Asian-American teens, to see themselves in Jessica’s creation, Rachel Kim.”

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